Bosniak Fighter Jailed for Abusing Serb Prisoners

Arnes GrbesicBIRNDoboj

Ex-fighter Nihad ‘Fric’ Hamzic was sentenced to two years in prison for crimes against Serb civilians held in wartime detention camps in Bosnia in 1992.

The district court in Doboj, in Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska, ruled on Thursday that Hamzic was guilty of abusing the prisoners who were being detained at camps in Derventa and Bosanski Brod in northern Bosnia.

“Between April and August 1992, as a member of the Croatian Defence Council, Hamzic physically and mentally abused prisoners in the Rabic camp near Derventa, which held over 100 Serb civilians, as well as in the Tulek camp in Bosanki Brod,” said the presiding judge, Hatidza Hodzic.

But Hamzic was acquitted of charges of committing crimes against civilians in the Polje camp near Derventa, and of forcing prisoners to dig trenches in nearby Tomasovo Brdo, as a result of which eight of them died.

He has the right to appeal against the verdict at Republika Srpska’s supreme court.